Former student editor wins two Palanca awards
Date Posted: October 15, 2018 at 02:14 PM
Joe Bert Lazarte, former Editor-in-Chief of The Adamson Chronicle (TAC), recently won two Palanca Awards during the 68th Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature held at the Peninsula Manila in Makati City last October 5, 2018. Lazarte was awarded 1st Place for his short story Describe the Rapture and 2nd Place for his one-act play Senator Pancho Aunor's Blue Balls of Despair and Disillusionment. He won his first Carlos Palanca in 2017 for his story Don't Blink, which won 3rd Place.
Lazarte, an AB Mass Communication graduate, is no stranger to winning awards for his writing. Serving as the Literary Editor and Features Editor of TAC prior to being its chief editor, he won a national essay writing competition sponsored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1996. He bested writers from major universities in Luzon. The win earned him the privilege of joining three other Filipino youth delegates in a trip to Rome where they helped craft a Universal Declaration against World Hunger together with other youth delegates from more than 130 countries.
Lazarte went on to work in the advertising and marketing fields, writing poems and stories on the side. In 2002, his essay The Past as Prologue, in which he reminisced his days in Adamson University, won the Grand Prize in The Philippine Star's Fresh Ink Writing Competition. In 2006, his story Blind Spot won 2nd Place in the Philippines Free Press Annual Literary Prize. His essay Hopelessly Absurd, Starkly Beautiful won the
2014 Grand Prize in the National Bookstore’s annual writing competition.
For his multiple writing achievements, he was given recognition as one of Adamson University’s Outstanding Alumni for 2015.
Joe Bert Lazarte is currently a Senior Creative Communications Manager for OKADA Manila’s Branding Department.
The Adamson University community extends to him its warm congratulations.
